Steed Malbranque
Steed Malbranque ( Mouscron , January 6 1980 ) is a Belgium born footballer with French nationality. He plays as a midfielder for French football club Olympique Lyonnais . Earlier Malbranque was under contract with Fulham , Tottenham Hotspur , Sunderland AFC and AS Saint-Étienne . If international Malbranque came seven times for Young France , where he came twice to score. Content [ hide ] *1 Career **1.1 Begin **1.2 Fulham **1.3 Tottenham **1.4 Sunderland AFC **1.5 AS Saint-Étienne *2 International career *3 Trivia *4 See also *5 Sources Career [ edit ] Begin [ edit ] He was educated at the French Olympique Lyon between 1995 and 1997 . During that period, he won the Under-15 championship twice, the Cup for Under-17, and the championship for reserve teams. He was also the captain of the French national team Under-18. The midfielder made his debut for the first team in a 1-1 draw against Montpellier on February 21 1998 , at the age of 18. He played a total of 96 games for the club, including 12 appearances and two goals in the Champions League and seven appearances in the UEFA Cup . During his time in Lyon, there was some interest from the English Arsenal , but he refused because he was not ready in their own words for the Premier League. Fulham [ edit ] In 2001 he signed a contract with Fulham . The club paid an estimated 6.7 million euros for the talent. He made his debut in a 3-2 loss away match against Manchester United , and would score 10 times in his first season. He grew up in the five years from Fulham to a fixed value. In 211 games, he scored 44 times, including six games and three goals in the UEFA Cup adventure from Fulham in 2002 . He was top scorer in the 2002-2003 season with thirteen goals. With this he had a large share in the physical preservation of the club in that season. Also asked him to come play for the Red Devils . This was possible because he had dual citizenship and was released. Only for French youth teams He hit the offer because he still had the hope ever to come out. Before the French team in their own words On 13 May 2006 Malbranque was after extensive contract talks with the club came to nothing, placed on the transfer list. There was interest include Reading , Middlesbrough , West Ham United , Manchester City , Everton and Newcastle United , but he chose on the last day of the transfer window for Tottenham Hotspur . Despite an injury prevented him from playing the first ten weeks along, there was reportedly a transfer fee of three million involved. Tottenham [ edit ] Malbranque made his debut for the Spurs on November 8 2006 in the match at White Hart Lane against Port Vale . He scored his first goal a month later in the 5-1 home win againstCharlton Athletic . Sunderland AFC [ edit ] In the summer of 2008 Malbranque makes the move to Sunderland AFC . AS Saint-Étienne [ edit ] In August 2011 Malbranque continued his career in his homeland with Saint-Étienne . The midfielder signed a contract for two seasons, but stopped less than a month after his active career to care for his sick son [1] . International career [ edit ] Although he was born in Mouscron, he was drafted into the French team Under-21 for the European Under-21 in 2002 , which he reached the final. In February 2004, Malbranque was called the "big" France. However, he was not playing games. Trivia [ edit ] *Malbranque is named after Avengers character John Steed. *He's been known to hang during matches, making himself seem smaller and shirts are a few sizes too big. His shirt out of his pants *He scored the 150th goal for Tottenham in a European context at home against Sporting Braga on March 14 2007 in the eighth finals of the UEFA Cup . Category:1980 births